No you're plenty free to post about the Olympics. Don't make posts like "you know you guys are shelling out billions for meaningless trinkets, right?" posts that are completely off topic and nonconstructive.

Wow Japan takes the Silver, GBR to the Bronze. That is nuts. Poor Ukraine.

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Incidentally, the "value" of the medal is unimportant, if I'm at the Olympics and they use a breeze block as an Olympic medal it will be worth a billion dollars to me to win one, I'm not concerned as to the value thereof more what it represents.

It just seems odd to me that they can spend all this money on added security and building giants stadiums and whatever else, but can't even hand out a real gold medal.

To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.

Of course not, but that comes with hosting the Olympics. It's true that the Olympics does trash the economy, some even speculate that the Athens Olympics is the reason Greece is in the toilet right now. China lost money when they hosted in Beijing, where they even had to shut down factories just to make the air more breathable. And yes, UK did go over budget.

BUT, there's a reason why countries fight for the Olympics. Even though it drains the economy, if they can survive it long-term (unlike Greece), it benefits the economy with all the new infrastructure and city improvements. In the long-term, it's a very good excuse to upgrade your city.

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To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.

Dude, it's a SHOW. It's meant to cost money - by 'show' I'm referring to the olympics. It's for FUN. Or do you not get the meaning of fun? Sure, competitiveness is involved too, but it's about bringing the nations of the world together.

The opening ceremony cost £8m, to put it into context that would probably buy you an average premiership player or if you're an American, that will pay Alex Rodriguez for approximately the amount of time he'll be on the disabled list with a broken hand. What you're not taking into account is the revenue generated by the games, again some context, I have already spent £50 on tickets to two events, to which you can add two round journeys to Glasgow (£8 each day) & have been compelled to buy a nice Team GB hoodie (£28) which I likely wouldn't have bought otherwise, I'm also likely to visit London for the Paralympics (£10 ticket, £20 transport down there + whatever I spend while I'm there). That's just one person, there will be likely close to 65,000 people every day in the Olympic Stadium, probably close to 200k tickets for an average competition day - all of them contributing to the economy directly through the price of the ticket, many will be tourists from outside the UK needing a hotel room, most will make purchases as well contributing VAT to the UK economy.

The whole ethos of "this is costing billions" is a short sighted view based on a complete disregard for the basics of economics as you're looking at the expenditure while completely ignoring the income side of the balance sheet.

To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.

Of course not, but that comes with hosting the Olympics. It's true that the Olympics does trash the economy, some even speculate that the Athens Olympics is the reason Greece is in the toilet right now. China lost money when they hosted in Beijing, where they even had to shut down factories just to make the air more breathable. And yes, UK did go over budget.

BUT, there's a reason why countries fight for the Olympics. Even though it drains the economy, if they can survive it long-term (unlike Greece), it benefits the economy with all the new infrastructure and city improvements. In the long-term, it's a very good excuse to upgrade your city.

---------- Post added 2012-07-31 at 03:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Tesclo

As it should be considering one needs to train their entire life to compete within the olympics. These are literally glorified trinkets at this point.

The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.
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